Monthly Archives: December 2013

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It was a good year for time-lapse photography at home. Here’s my compilation of Alberta time-lapses in a 3-minute music video.

For a year-end look back at 2013 I assembled these highlights of my year of shooting time-lapse movies of the Alberta sky, by day and night.

I’ve included clips shot around home in rural southern Alberta, and further afield at popular photo spots around the province such as Waterton Lakes National Park, Banff, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, and Cypress Hills Provincial Park.

I hope you enjoy it! Be sure to maximize the video screen and select HD.

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Some technical background:

I shot all the frames for the movies (150 to 300 frames for each clip) with either a Canon 5D MkII or a Canon 60Da camera, equipped with various lenses from 8mm to 200mm. For many of the clips the cameras were on motion control devices: the Radian azimuth panning unit, an Orion TeleTrack mount, or a Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly unit. You see the latter in action behind the credits.

For image processing and movie assembly I used Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop, LRTimeLapse, Sequence, Panolapse/RawBlend utility, and for some of the star trails either StarStax or Star Circle Academy’s Advanced Stacker Actions.

What makes this timelapse film different is that it was captured mostly be timelapse newbies. The group had instruction over a 4-day period and was given access to motion control gear. This film is the result of their work.. 3000 images, 4 days & nights. A few clips of mine (instructor) are also included.

Moab Utah is not only home to hundred’s of natural arches, it’s also home to incredibly dark skies – making it an ideal spot to capture footage of the night sky. In October 2013 a group of photographers got together for a workshop event called Timelapse Moab, where they learned how to capture timelapses and more importantly, timelapses of the night sky.

A time-lapse short film celebrating the vivid beauty of some breathtaking landscapes of Iceland, captured in the never-ending light of a nordic summer, with uncommon conditions and a unique color crescendo. The azures of icebergs fade into the reds of martian terrains immersed in hot-springs fumes. Epic cloudscapes painted by midnight sun alternate majestic waterfalls decorated with rainbows. Godafoss seems to show its authentic spirit.

57.000 raw pictures were taken in a month, while fighting against the weather and driving alone for 5.600km (3500 miles). The original route and plan were messed up when a bridge disappeared because of a “jökulhlaup”. The post-production (in 4K) required many full months of intense work, not rarely frame by frame. The research of pure images demanded the removal of an infinite number of tourists, birds, cars and other fast moving or distracting elements.

Between June and October 2013 I traveled to Utah 3 times. It was my first time in Utah and I tried to visit the amazing National Parks they have down south. I visited Arches National Park, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. 2 of the 3 times I went, It rained most of the time and the other was 15 degrees. I really wanted to get some milk way shots but that wasn’t happening. Overall, it was really cool to visit these places in person. I would love to go back when the weather is better but I know that’s hard to predict.

This is a timelapse short, showing some of the highlights of my 7 week South America trip earlier this year. I was backpacking and could not bring too much gear, so all the footage was shot with 3 lenses

Into The Mind is a filmmaking exploration that has lead the Sherpas Cinema and Camp 4 Collective crews all over the globe. However the two companies first collaboration took place in Nepal, in the heart of the Himalayan mountain Range. In a rare opportunity filmmakers Dave Mossop, Renan Ozturk and athlete Rory Bushfield set out on a “Vision Quest” to capture the world’s most impressive mountain range, using the latest time lapse and film making technologies. Forced to travel on the tail end of on the monsoon season with rainy weather the team is forced to improvise. Renan introduces Dave and Bushy to a local Sherpa named ‘Karma Tsering’ a man that allows them to capture the internal world of Nepalese culture and shapes the main vision behind the film.

INTO THE MIND:

From the makers of the award winning film “All.I.Can”, comes the new feature film: INTO THE MIND. Blur the lines between dream state and reality, as you perceive the world through the minds of many. Into the Mind contemplates the experiences passed between mentors and peers to paint a philosophical portrait of human kind. What drives us to overcome challenge? How do we justify risk? What forces are at the core of a mountain addiction? Unique athlete segments over a multitude of mountain sport genres depict the connectivity of Earth, and window into never seen before moments. Explore how we begin our perception of self, construct the foundations of confidence, and are ultimately led up the path of self-actualization.

As Buddha once said, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
Into The Mind is about becoming.

Please watch full screen in HD to see dozens of meteors zip across the sky! Turn up the volume to enjoy Justin Durban’s beautiful soundtrack!

The annual Geminids meteor shower is nature’s natural fireworks show. This year’s shower is unique because it took place close to a full moon. While the bright moon washed out some of the weaker meteors, it also lit up the landscape and casted beautiful moving shadows. Perfect conditions for timelapse filmmaking!

In this film you’ll see dozens of meteors against a foreground of joshua trees, rock formations, and the winter night sky. There’s also lightning, sunrises, sunsets and some beautifully shot day to night and night to day timelapse sequences.

This film was shot completely in 5K raw. It was made by a small talented crew of timelapse newbies over a 5 day timelapse workshop I taught in Joshua Tree. We hope you enjoy our efforts!

All shots are available for licensing.

About the workshop:
Taught by timelapse filmmaker Henry Jun Wah Lee, participants learned how to shoot everything from static to motion-controlled, day to night, and astro timelapses. The 5 day workshop also covered how to process raw 5K images into Ultra HD resolution 4K videos.

Filmed throughout San Diego County during the summer months of 2013. This film contains over 20,000 photographs featuring beautiful night time shots of the Milky Way, La Jolla harbor seals and wild life, 2013 Red Tide, downtown San Diego and various meteor showers.

A big thanks to Matthews MSE (www.msegrip.com) especially to Bob Kulesh, Tyler & Ed Phillips for their generous support and patience of this lengthy endeavor. Most of the linear motion control shots were captured using their FloatCam DC Slider, a wonderful piece of engineering for the time lapse world.

‘Nightfall’ is a three minute tour of light through the City of Angels.

I shot “Nightfall” in an attempt to capture Los Angeles as it transitioned from day to night. As you probably know, LA is an expansive city so shooting it from many different angles was critical. Usually I was able to capture just one shot per day with a lot of driving, exploring, and scouting in between but the times sitting in traffic or a “sketchy” neighborhood often lead to new adventures and interesting places.

Nightfall in particular is my favorite time to shoot time lapse. Capturing the transition from day to night while looking back at the city as the purple shadow of Earth envelopes the eastern skyline and the warm distant twinkling halogen lights spark to life and give the fading sun a run for her money- this will never grow old or boring to me.

In this piece, it was important to me for the shots to both capture and accentuate the movement of light through the day and night and the use of multiple motion control techniques allowed me to do so.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

An English translation of the lyrics-

“It is late. I am looking for my other home, taking an unfamiliar path: a small trail near the factories and the city, cutting through the forest. I can barely see nature when suddenly, night falls. I am engulfed by a world of silence, yet I am not afraid. I fall asleep for a few minutes at the most, and when I wake up, the sun is there and the forest is shining with a bright light.

I recognize this forest. It is not an ordinary forest, it is a forest of memories. My memories. The white and noisy river, my adolescence. The tall trees, the men I have loved. The birds in flight, and in the distance, my lost father.

My memories aren’t memories anymore. They are there, with me, dancing and embracing, singing and smiling at me.

I look at my hands. I caress my face, and I am 20 years old. And I love like I have never loved before.”